Chapter 394 - 315: The Road to Level Three
No. 7 Wisteria Lane, third basement level.
A Crystal Stone Lamp cast a cold, white light upon several scrolls of parchment spread out on a stone table.
Ian sat cross-legged, his fingertip hovering in the air, slowly tracing over the surface of the paper.
Two days had passed since his return from the projection, and his Sea of Spirit had completely stabilized at its new limit.
The miniature Star Map slowly rotated, its three intersecting Star Orbits circling around it.
The silvery-gray Gravity Star Orbit stirred spatial ripples, the pure Purification Star Orbit shed the Starlight of Order, and the eerie Time Star Orbit disrupted the flow of time.
His total Spiritual Power was four times that of an ordinary Level Two Peak Wizard.
Elementalization progress: 100% complete.
His physical strength, tempered over a long period by the Furnace Body Tempering Skill, was comparable to that of a Level Two Body Refining Wizard.
All conditions were met. Only the final step remained: to unify all his Witchcraft and condense his Elemental True Form.
’I haven’t organized all my Witchcraft yet, but I can look over the materials from my predecessors first. It might spark some inspiration.’
Ian opened a classic text. These were the materials Aidele had brought back for him from the Secret Vault.
On the yellowed pages, the ink had faded, but the writing was still clear.
Elemental True Body Condensation Technique - Justice Clan Internal Revision
Opening the first page revealed a dense collection of warnings.
They were written in a dark red ink that resembled dried blood.
[Danger 1: Planar Will Impact]
[To condense an Elemental True Form, one must connect to an Elemental Plane of the corresponding attribute.]
[Fire, ice, water, earth, wind... each has its own dedicated plane...]
[Conceptual attributes such as stars, Time, and space correspond to the primordial origins deep within the endless Void, and are the most dangerous...]
[Regardless of the type, you will encounter the impact of the planar Will. The methods to cope are...]
[Those whose Will is not resilient enough will have their Souls assimilated, transforming into Elemental Spirits of the plane, damned for eternity.]
Ian stared at these lines of text, a silver glint flashing deep within his pupils.
’Planar Will impact... Soul Assimilation?’
He recalled the first time he performed the Starry Sky Festival Meditation.
When his consciousness sensed the Void, it linked not only to the origin of the stars.
But also to a wisp... of the twisted, insane, and boundlessly chaotic Will of the Abyss.
’Fortunately, the panel performed a Purification, allowing me to survive the crisis.’
It even left behind a wisp of pure Spiritual Power Origin and some filtered knowledge fragments.
Ever since then, during his daily Meditation, he had been deliberately shearing wool from the Abyss’s Will.
Day by day, it accumulated, until his Spiritual Power was four times that of Wizards of the same level.
His knowledge of the Abyss had become as vast as the sea.
’Planar Will impact...’
Ian muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
’For me... it poses no danger.’
The panel would block anything that could cause Erosion of his Soul.
This was his greatest trump card.
He composed himself and turned to the second page, where the dark red warnings were even more alarming.
[Danger 2: Elementalization Synchronization Rate]
[The Elementalization progress of each body part must be highly synchronized.]
[If the right arm is at 70% and the left leg is at 50%...]
[A massive ’elemental density differential’ will create terrifying shear stress within the body.]
[In a mild case, the body will disintegrate; in a severe case, the Soul will face Annihilation.]
Next to the text, there was a thoughtfully included hand-drawn illustration.
A skeleton was torn to smithereens, every piece of bone covered in fine cracks.
It looked as if it had been forcefully ripped apart from the inside by countless hands.
Beside the skeleton, an annotation was written in smaller characters.
[Albert Justice, seventh-generation Elder of the Justice Clan, Level Three Great Wizard]
[While condensing his Ice Demon Elemental True Form, his left arm’s Elementalization progress was 17% ahead of the rest.]
[On the third day of his breakthrough, his body exploded from the inside, leaving not even bones behind.]
Ian stared at the illustration, silent for a full three seconds.
His left arm was 17% ahead...
His current physical strength was indeed greater than that of an ordinary Level Two Body Refining Wizard.
But the kind of shear stress created by that "elemental density differential"...
According to the text, it could easily tear through the bones and Scale Armor of a Tier Three Extraordinary Magical Beast.
"HISS! Was it really that gruesome?"
It seemed that even the strongest Level Two physical body couldn’t withstand it directly, which was why Balance Potions were needed.
Ian closed the text and retrieved a worn piece of parchment from the depths of his Dimension Ring.
The edges of the paper were scorched black, as if licked by fire.
Most of the script, written in the ancient Wizard Language, was still clearly visible.
[Water of Balance (Incomplete)]
This was the payment he had received from Kristen during his time as an Apprentice.
At the time, he only knew it was an incomplete Potion recipe that the panel couldn’t even record. That was until his trade with Sterling at Furnace Camp, when the panel issued a warning for the first time.
Only then did he realize that this recipe was... truly extraordinary.
Ian’s gaze fell on the first line of the recipe.
[Primary Material 1: Condensed Core of the Silent Jellyfish]
[Extracted from the non-decaying central gelatinous body left behind after the death of a deep-sea Silent Jellyfish.]
[Naturally possesses an ’Energy Buffer’ characteristic, capable of transforming sharp, violent energy impacts into gentle ripples.]
[Must be harvested in a lightless environment, cut into an almond-sized piece with a Silver Saber for preservation.]
[If exposed to light for more than ten seconds, it will rapidly rot and become ineffective.]
He had seen this item on the exchange list during the Demon Hunting war.
It cost an outrageous eight thousand Merit Points per piece, but thankfully, he had gritted his teeth and exchanged for one back then.
It was now lying in a special Crystal Box inside his Dimension Ring.
[Primary Material 2: Void Crystal]
[Originates from a Void Rift and contains Rule Fragments of the Space Rule.]
[A core material for Refining Spatial Witchcraft Tools, and also one of the primary materials for Balance Potions.]
Ian’s fingertip brushed across this line of text.
A Void Crystal... he had won the bid for that arm-sized piece at the ship’s prow auction.
He had used most of it for Refining the Two-Realm Phase Analyzer, leaving only a fist-sized piece.
’That should be enough.’
[Important Auxiliary Material: A complete shed skin from a Snake of the Retired Qilin]
[Snake of the Retired Qilin: A rare Demonic Creature originating from the Moonlight Forest.]